Glasgow Kiss guitar tone

The rig John Petrucci used

Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.

Signal chain

The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.

1. Ernie Ball Music Man JP6

   1

   source

   guitar
2. dbx 166XL

   2

   rack compression on the clean and lead signal

   comp
3. Rocktron HUSH IIC

   3

   noise reduction after the preamp

   gate
4. Mesa/Boogie Mark IV

   4

   clean intro and the legato lead theme

   amp
5. Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

   5

   the heavy section

   amp
6. Mesa/Boogie Rectifier 4x12 (oversized, Celestion Vintage 30)

   6

   cabinet

   cab
7. Shure SM57 (+ Sennheiser MD421)

   7

   cabinet microphones

   mic
8. TC Electronic SCF Stereo Chorus Flanger

   8

   the wide chorus on the clean intro

   mod
9. TC Electronic TC 2290 Digital Delay

   9

   the main delay

   delay
10. Eventide Eclipse

    10

    detuned thickening on the lead theme and solo

    mod
11. Lexicon PCM 70

    11

    hall/plate space behind leads and cleans

    reverb

Why we think this is right

Glasgow Kiss (Suspended Animation, 2005) is a signature Celtic-flavoured melodic instrumental: chorused clean arpeggios open it, a legato lead theme rides the Mark IV lead channel, and the heavy section leans on a Rectifier-voiced modern channel, all into a Mesa oversized 4x12. Answering the graded question directly: the record did NOT need a second amp for the clean. The Mesa/Boogie Mark IV is a three-channel head whose Rhythm 1 is a genuine, full-featured clean channel, so the clean intro and the lead theme are the same amp on different channels rather than a rolled-back lead channel or a second head - the stored record's block name simply pinned the amp to 'lead channel', which made the clean channel unreachable, and the channel is now carried per section instead. A separate real inconsistency in the stored record is fixed: its section mapping named 'Mesa Rectifier (modern)' for the heavy section while the chain carried only a Mark IV, so the heavy section bound to a Mark IV using a channel name that amp does not have. A Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier block is added and the heavy section now binds to it, so the mapping and the chain agree. Two devices that the stored record named only in prose are given real blocks: the dbx 166XL compressor (named inside another block's evidence text) and the Eventide Eclipse. There is no wah on this track - no Cry Baby 535Q and no wah pedal of any kind is used here, though the 535Q is on Petrucci's board - and there is no pitch shifter, no fuzz and no tremolo. Chord/tab evidence (E5, Bm, D, F#m, A/C#, C#m7) points to E major/Mixolydian as the tonal centre (D major is a common misattribution); standard E tuning; JP6 with Air Norton (neck) and Steve's Special (bridge).

Sources

• Premier Guitar - John Petrucci Rig Rundowns and rack tours
• Line 6 - John Petrucci tour rig diagram (Bradshaw rack: TC 2290, TC SCF, Lexicon PCM 70, Rocktron HUSH, dbx 166XL)
• Mesa/Boogie artist coverage - Petrucci Mark-series and Rectifier use
• Ultimate-Guitar - Glasgow Kiss tab (chord set)
• Music Man / DiMarzio JP6 pickup configuration documentation

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